30 Days of Night

July 25, 2008

Rated: R Runtime: 113 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

This movie didn’t make much of a splash in theaters, but it’s worth a DVD rental.

Based on Steve Niles’s 2002 comic book, it’s set in Barrow, Alaska, a town far above the Arctic Circle. At least as depicted here, around the time of the Winter Solstice, it’s in pitch darkness for 30 days, and so a group of vampires decides this is their Disneyland.

30 Days of Night Josh Hartnett plays the small town’s sheriff, Melissa George (ALIAS) is his estranged wife, and Danny Huston is the king of the vampires.

This is an atmospheric, snow-covered film, and you really get the feel of the brutal winter trapping these people in the town while the vampires pick them off one by one.

These aren’t some Anne Rice pretty boy vampires; these are feral, nasty creatures who are just hungry, and they don’t seem to be having a very good time with their preternatural immortality. And they want to pass their misery on to their victims.

The film takes some liberties with Barrow; in reality the town isn’t nearly as cut off during its dark time as this makes it out to be. Here it’s depicting almost as remote as an Antarctic base.

Incidentally, the real-life residents of Barrow, Alaska really do have to take precautions to avoid being eaten alive by monsters. Only they’re not called vampires; they’re called polar bears.

DVD extras: Commentary with Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, and producer Rob Tapert. Eight short “Making Of” featurettes.

Posted by Mack Guffin | Filed Under 3 Stars, DVD, Danny Huston, Horror, Josh Hartnett, Melissa George